How far back can you trace your ancestors?

[curupira]

I've been into genealogy for many years, but quite helpful were a few relatives who had already written a few books, which traced some not so distant ancestors to known characters from XVIII century Brazil, and from these people it was not too difficult to trace back to the first settlers.

An example of what happened to me: upon researching my genealogy, I traced my ancestry back to my great grandfather (Antonio Moreira Junior). I went to the town he was born (a very small town lost in the interior of Brazil by the way - no more than 2000 inhabitants and with only two streets - take into account my great grandfather was born in the rural area of that town). I looked for his obituary, found it and then looked for the name of his parents. Later I found three books, by close relatives, with his name Antonio Moreira Junior, and the name of his brothers and sisters listed. From their names it was easy to go back much further back in time, since it was already recorded and registered by other peoples in the past. I traced my ancestry to Baltazar de Morais de Antas (1535-1600), a settler of very early Brazil (XVI century). 15th generations between me and him (Brites Rodrigues Anes was the daughter of a Portuguese couple who settled in Brazil according to Pedro Taques de Almeida Paes Leme, our main genealogist from the XVIII century).

15 generations between me and Baltazar de Morais de Antas:

1st generation Baltazar de Morais de Antas * Mogadouro, Mogadouro, Trás os Montes c. 1535 + Santos, São Vicente c. 1600 c/c Brites Rodrigues Anes

2nd generation Ana de Morais de Antas c/c Pantaleão Pedroso (Pantaleão was the son of Estevão Ribeiro Baião Parente & Madalena Fernandes Feijó de Madureira, they came to Brazil also in the XVI century)

3rd generation Maria de Morais c/c Francisco Ribeiro (born in Viana do Castelo, he died in a bandeira in the Guairá, where he made his testament)

4th generation Sebastiana Ribeiro de Morais c/c Vittore Antonio de Castronuovo (he was from Naples, Italy)

5th generation Francesco Ribeiro de Morais c/c Ana Lopes Moreira (daughter of Gaspar Gonçalves Ordonho & Ana Moreira)

6th generation Sebastiana Ribeiro de Morais c/c Gaspar de Godoy Colaço (son of João de Godói Moreira & Eufémia da Costa Mota)

7th generation Maria Pedroso de Morais c/c João Correia da Silva (great grandson of Amador Bueno, the Acclaimed)

8th generation Escolástica de Morais c/c João da Cunha Ataíde

9th generation Maria Cândida da Cunha Ataíde c/c Francisco Joaquim de Andrade

10th generation Rosa da Cunha Andrade (fazenda do Aquenta Sol, farm of Aquenta Sol) c/c Manoel Caetano Fortunato da Cunha Ataíde

11th generation Teodora da Cunha Andrade c/c Antonio Moreira da Silva Cunha

12th generation Antonio Moreira Junior c/c Eliza Rosa de Barros

13th generation Conceição de Andrade Moreira

14th generation my mother

15th generation me

This is the genealogy of Baltazar de Morais de Antas, it goes back quite a great deal in time (plenty of information on him in the link below), it goes back to the early days of Portugal:

http://www.buratto.net/doria/AntasMoraes.pdf

[Diërker]

1 BC.

[Pleurat]

Very srz here... till 400 years ago.

[Vasa]

Year 1691 is as far as my family have traced it atleast.

[Peyrol]

1225

[Germanicus]

1846 ...for a Brit that is quite good, most families left the villages and hamlets for work in the industrial revolution, subsequently people hav to look for old church records.
The British censuses are only good for 1890s really, occasionally you can go back further if you have an unusual surname such as mine.

[Atlantic Islander]

Pretty far, one of my distant cousins is a genealogy nut and he put together a tree.

[Damião de Góis]

My family isn't into genealogy. I only know until my great-grandparents.

[Furnace]

Someone in my family traced it back to the 1600s or so, church records before that are hard to find they say.

[Pontios]

1400s.